Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
by dorkydemigod
Summary: in which Annabeth and Percy meet while waiting in line for a certain jolly fat man in red [percabeth au/one-shot]


Annabeth doesn't hate Christmas. Oh, no. She loves Christmas – the presents, the bonding, the food. She loves to get drunk with the spirit of it (amongst other things). She's all for Christmas jingles and fruit cake and snow angels and whatever. Annabeth **doesn't** hate Christmas.

She does, however, hate waiting in line. And crowds. And noise. And having to babysit her brothers. It doesn't matter if it's the 'most wonderful time of the year' – she will never not hate having to wait to meet and greet Santa Claus.

Okay, to be fair, this is her first time _ever_ to wait in line for some fat old man wearing a costume in the mall. She was never into those things as a kid. She preferred to spend her holidays in bed, with a book, drinking hot chocolate. Not once did she believe in ol' Saint Nick – given that her father never really told Annabeth about him. Or any of those children's fictional characters, for that matter.

But, come on, her brothers were _11 fucking years old_. 11, okay? They very well know that the Jolly Fat Man is a bunch of bull, yet they insist on going to meet him. And since both her dad and step-mom are busy with work and dinner preparations respectively, they dubbed Annabeth as babysitter for the day.

"You know, Bobby, I bet I'm going to receive better presents than you this year." Matthew taunts his brother.

"Yeah, right; I always receive the better presents, Matt, and you know that." Bobby sticks his tongue out, in which Matt returns the gesture to Bobby. They banter for a couple minutes on who'll get the better present, and the line is hardly moving, so Annabeth's mood worsens. Honestly, her brothers are so immature. And stupid, really.

"You guys do realize that you always receive the same presents, right?" Annabeth says, glaring at the two of them. This shuts them up for a while, to Annabeth's relief, but they go at it again with a different thing to fight about. Annabeth decides to shut them out, only talking to them if they neglect to step forward when the line _(finally_ ) moves.

She's humming to a song when she hears one of her brothers mention the word 'Iron Man'. Being a Marvel fan, she decides to listen in.

"Seriously, Iron Man could beat Captain America any day. He has the suit!"

"No way. Captain America is a super-soldier. Without the suit, Iron Man's nothing."

The argument goes on, Annabeth – for the first time – listening intently, until their faces were so close to each other, she actually gets scared that they'll beat each other to death if this continues. She pulls Bobby away (or Matthew, she doesn't really care right now) and steps in between them.

"You know, as amazing Cap and Iron Man would be, I'd say Thor would be able to beat the crap out of them both. At the same time." Annabeth says and her plan works. The only way to stop Bobby and Matthew from arguing against each other is if they find something to argue against her.

"That's stupid –"

"Iron Man and Captain America would beat Thor –"

"It's two against one –"

"All he has is his hammer –"

Annabeth doesn't reason with them. She just pushes them forward when the line moves, relieved to see that there are less than 5 people between them and the fat man in red.

She hears a soft chuckle behind her, then a voice. "Scarlet Witch could totally beat all their asses."

Her head turns to see a guy who looks to be about the same age as her, with black hair and sea-green eyes. He's smiling, holding the hand of a little brunette girl beside him.

"Excuse me?" it comes out harsh, complete with an eyebrow raise, but Annabeth doesn't really care.

This made the black haired boy blush, his eyes widening slightly. "I, uh. I mean, Scarlet Witch. She can, um, beat all of their asses?" his statement sounded like a question. Annabeth realizes that the guy is scared of her, and she decides to lay off on the glaring.

"Oh," she makes her voice sound calm, kind, and even tries for a smile. It must have worked because the guy's face relaxes a bit. "I _was_ going to say Scarlet Witch but Matthew and Bobby don't know her. Despite the fact that we've watched Age of Ultron and Civil War tons of times, they only seem to remember Cap, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the 'English Guy with the Cape'." She smirks and rolls her eyes, taking a few steps forward before she turns again.

The guy laughs. "At least you get to watch Marvel movies in your spare time. I can't tell you how many times I've watched Frozen just because Sophie wants to." He looks down at the little girl beside him and sticks his tongue out playfully. Sophie laughs, and Annabeth's heart melts at the sight of the siblings' interaction.

"Hey, Frozen isn't all that bad." she feels hands tugging on hers and sees both the twins pulling her forward. She obliges. Now only a couple with their child is standing between them and Father Christmas.

The guy laughs again. "It sort of is if you've watched it enough times to memorize all the lines and songs without difficulty." Sophie steps forward and tugs at Annabeth's shirt. Annabeth stoops down to Sophie's height as she whispers in her ear. "He's lying; he likes the songs, he sings Let it Go in the shower."

Annabeth has to bite her lip to stop from laughing. "He does?" she glances up at the guy then stands straight. "Well, a little birdie told me that you don't entirely hate Frozen. Tell me, are you able to reach even the highest notes?"

The guy blushes furiously, crouching down and glaring at his little sister. "What did I tell you about telling people that I sing Frozen in the shower?" he runs his hand through his face in mock exasperation, Sophie only giggling at his expense. His voice lowers as he adds, "I said don't do it, especially in front of pretty girls."

Now it's Annabeth's turn to blush. She quickly turns back to face her brothers and Santa Claus to hide her face.

"You know," she hears the voice from behind her, and she can practically see the smirk on his face. No doubt he saw how she reacted. "I don't _only_ sing Frozen."

"Oh, I suppose you throw in a little Tangled in there, too?" her voice is teasing, but her face is still slightly burning. Bobby and Matthew step towards Santa, already rambling about what they want. She swears the only reason they want to meet Santa is to annoy the shit out of him.

"I don't like Tangled."

That makes her turn back to him, the flush on her face replaced by disbelief and rage. "You _don't_ like Tangled? _How could you not like Tangled?!_ " the smile on the guy's face quickly fades, and he looks, once again, scared.

"I never – well, I've only watched it once and, uh, I never got to finish it. I got bored when the evil mom was singing, and, well –"

"You _got bored?!"_ Annabeth can hardly keep her voice down. She can't help it, she _loved_ Tangled. Screw the looks she's getting from the people around. "That's my favorite Disney movie ever! I _cried!_ How could you _get bored?"_

"I – I'm sorry?" the guy grimaces. She can hear Sophie giggling at her brother's reaction.

"God," Annabeth rolls her eyes and massages her temple. "you're so weird."

The guy slowly starts to smile. He opens his mouth to say something before she feels hands tugging hers once more. She turns to see the twins dragging her away, telling her to " _hurry up, we're hungry_ ". With her against two (they're surprisingly strong for 11 year olds), she has no choice but to be pulled away from the line – as well as the guy with black hair and sea-green eyes.

She looks back and finds that the crowd of the mall has hidden the guy from sight. It isn't until they reach her car that she realizes that she doesn't even know his name.

Percy's eyes should be tired from looking around everywhere, only blinking when he absolutely has to, but they aren't. The crowd is starting to thicken and he has to stretch his neck if he wants to find her, but he feels no pain in doing so. All he feels is determination.

Sophie and he have been in the mall since an hour and a half ago, about the same time the line to meet Santa opened, and they still haven't met Saint Nicholas. Sophie's getting tired, he realizes, but he doesn't want to give up.

Okay, Percy admits that, _yes_ , maybe his determination is _bordering_ obsession, but he can't help it. He met an amazing attractive girl – albeit slightly scary – last year and he doesn't even know her name. Now, every girl with blond hair gets his attention immediately, and all he ends up with is the feeling of disappointment. He realizes how big New York actually is if he's been looking for a girl for a year and still haven't found her.

"Percy," Sophie calls and Percy looks down to her, apology prepared at the tip of his tongue. He doesn't get the chance to apologize though because, this time, she isn't complaining about hunger or tired feet. Her voice turns soft. "Are you looking for the pretty blonde girl we met last year?"

Percy swallows, wondering if he really is being that obvious to the point that a six year old can see through him. He opens his mouth to make up some lie but then decides against it at the last second. "Uh, yeah. Sorry Soph, this is the only chance I've got to see her again."

Sophie only nods in response. Percy's starting to panic. What if the girl's brothers got too old for Santa Claus? Or she won't be the one bringing them here? A plethora of other possibilities runs through his mind, which doesn't make him feel any better.

To be honest, Percy doesn't even know what to do if he _does_ see her. What would he say? " _Hey, I missed you_ "? " _I've been looking everywhere for you_ "? " _I've watched Tangled 17 times because I kept thinking about you and, yeah, you're completely right, it is amazing and even better than Frozen_ "?

All of those are, in fact, true. He does miss her (but how do you even miss someone you don't know?), and he has been looking for her whenever he can. And, _yes,_ Percy's watched Tangled 17 times over the past year. It's not because it was _that_ amazing (well, it is but that's beside the point). He does it because it's one of the few things that somehow connect him to her. It's her favorite movie. (Is he being pathetic? _Yes._ Is he even embarrassed at this point? _No._ )

But he can't tell her any of those things, he'll seem desperate and lame and crazy – well, for her anyway (never mind that he actually _is_ desperate, lame and crazy for her).

With a sigh, he finally gives up. Without a word, he pulls Sophie to the end of the line, not in the spirit of the holidays at all.

Sophie seems to understand what's happening and she doesn't ask any questions when they reach the end of the line. She makes no noise and doesn't even look at him, only holding his hand and not letting go.

Percy wants to cry. (He won't though – he may be a lunatic but he isn't a lunatic in pubic.)

His phone vibrates when they were about 5 minutes into the line, and Percy checks to see a message from his mom, asking when they were going home. He quickly replies then stares at his wallpaper for a few minutes – of Captain America and Iron Man staring each other off. He remembers the blonde girl's conversation with her brothers, and how he just decided to butt in because she looked so pretty from behind, he wanted to see if she was even more so up front.

She probably thought that her tone scared him, Percy thinks. That's why she calmed her voice down afterwards. In reality, he was just breathless and amazed at how beautiful she looked. He completely choked – embarrassing, but she smiled at him afterwards so it was worth it.

"Scarlett Witch could totally beat all their asses."

He turns to see the blonde girl he was just thinking about – right in front of him. (Or behind him. Beside him?) There she is, in all her beauty, dressed in a white sweater and red skirt, her curls so perfect, Percy almost whimpered. Or maybe he did.

"Wha – Hey – I – uh – what – it's you!" Percy makes a mental note to hit himself repeatedly in the balls later for being such a failure.

She laughs, the blonde girl, and it reminds Percy of a mixture of both winter and summer – cool yet warm. He probably would have said something lame and just embarrass himself further if his sister didn't interrupt.

"It's you! The pretty blonde girl Percy's been looking for!" Sophie says when she turned to see who her brother was talking to. (You know, maybe it would've been a lot better if he just embarrassed himself by himself rather than his sister do it.)

"Sophie!" Percy stage-whispers, all the blood rushing to his face. The blonde laughs heartily.

"You've been looking for me, huh?" she teases, and Percy doesn't know if he wants to live in this moment forever or die right then and there.

Percy rubs the back of his neck, not meeting her eyes. "Well, uh, not exactly." One of her eyebrows shoot up. "I mean, yeah, I guess. Our conversation last year didn't really end the way we wanted it to, did it?"

The girl pretends to think about it, tapping her chin a couple times. "Mm, I suppose not. It's a good thing Bobby and Matthew still want to annoy Santa, or else I wouldn't be talking to you right now." The line moves and Percy takes a couple steps. From behind the girl, her twin brothers are arguing, just like they did last time. She follows his gaze and sighs. "They're 12 now yet they can't seem to grow up."

"It lead you to me anyway so at least there's some good coming out of it." The moment the words leave Percy's mouth, he wishes he didn't say them. Percy _doesn't_ flirt – he doesn't know how to. He wants to apologize but the smile on the girl's face made him forget what to say.

The line moves again and Percy is getting a lot closer to the front of the line. He remembers what happened last year and decides that now is not the time to make the same mistake. He faces her so abruptly, she jumps slightly in surprise.

"I'm Percy, by the way. Percy Jackson – before I forget to tell you." He sticks his hand out. Her eyes widen slightly before she takes his hand and shakes it.

"Annabeth Chase." She offers him a warm smile, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. He likes the name, thinking that it suits her just well. It's pretty, just like her. "It's a good thing you remembered."

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't want to spend another Christmas wondering what your name is, or if I'll ever be seeing you again." _Again_ with the flirting – Percy just can't stop himself. "It doesn't really make for a merry Christmas."

"Oh?" Annabeth smirks. She opens her mouth to say something else before she looks behind Percy and sees that Sophie is already with Santa. "Looks like we'll be parting ways soon."

Percy turns to see what's happening. Panic rises in him and he hastily fishes his phone out of his pocket. "Before that happens, can I get your number?" He's blushing, afraid that he's being too forward about it but she takes his phone from his hand and starts typing anyway. A couple seconds pass before she hands it over to him, smiling.

"Hopefully, you'll be having yourself a merry little Christmas this year."

"It would be even more so if we could get together sometime this week?" Percy's sure he's stretching his luck too much here, but it's worth a shot. Just to see her again. "I know a great place that serves amazing dessert."

Annabeth smiles widely, her eyes sparkling. "I'm free on the 27th. See you then?"

"Yes! I mean," Percy coughs, trying to soothe his enthusiasm. "Yes, that would be perfect. I'll text you the details later." He can feel Sophie tugging on his wrist once or twice, signaling that she's done, but waits for them to finish talking.

Laughing, Annabeth nods. Bobby and Matthew step up to Santa, already starting to annoy him. "Great. I'll look forward to it."

"Awesome." Sophie's already starting to walk away and Percy follows, but he's still facing Annabeth. He's about to turn before he remembers something. "Oh, and you're right – Tangled is an amazing movie. Better than Frozen, even."

She laughs again, shaking her head. "I told you." She shakes her head once more at the goofy smile he has on. "Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Percy Jackson."

"A merry Christmas to you, too, Annabeth Chase."


End file.
